


Don't Need a Name

by fadesfanfic



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Angst, F/F, Femslash, star wars femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 16:17:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6527173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadesfanfic/pseuds/fadesfanfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent seeks solace with a female friend after the distressing events on Quesh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Need a Name

**Author's Note:**

> chapter two spoilers, death (mentioned only, doesn't happen in fic), sexually explicit content

She's twenty three, and Cipher Nine feels like she has never had a name.

Of course, there's the name listen on her birth documents, Aereinys Trin. It doesn't sound like the other Chiss names she's heard, so she assumes it's not from Cheunh. She can't be certain though. Chiss culture is not one of the topic's covered in Imperial education.

But since she was raised in an Imperial institution for orphaned children, she never went by that. It was always “tenant” or “alien” if people were feeling less charitable. In primary school, it was “student” followed by whichever number. And at work it was “agent”.

That's the nice, clean thing about Imperial society. Everything is labeled. It all makes sense. Or it all should have.

But the real world never adhered as much to the rules and Imperial ideals as she'd expected it to. Even other citizens of her empire didn't. And she's realized, too late, that expecting them to has just left her getting burned. Sometimes literally.

It's time like these, she just wants to join Kaliyo and burn the world down.

Kaliyo's everything Cipher Nine had learned she could never be – impulsive, disloyal, and dangerous. On one hand, Cipher envies her freedom, and on the other, she's scared of the consequences. She's seen herself act like Kaliyo, dragged forward by her emotions and lust for revenge. The past year has been characterized by it.

It was like watching someone else's hand lock Ardun Kothe in the hanger, listening to someone else laughing as the turbo lasers blasted his body to oblivion. And it was definitely like watching through someone else's eyes as her companions stared on – Vector, horrified; Temple, nervous; Lokin, dispassionate; and Kaliyo, the only one who echoed her sentiments, smiling right along with her.

The next couple days, she spends on the ship, feeling just as trapped here as she did in her own mind these past couple months. No amount of training can get rid of the negative adrenaline high, no amount of avoiding people can make things go back to normal. She – no, it was intelligence. Intelligence and that damned SIS that changed all the rules. And she doesn't know how to change them back.

She's in her room, doing push ups for the fourth time today, hoping to regain the function she lost injecting the second batch of IX serum into her body. Even though she knows she should be lucky it worked and she can still move and mostly do work, she hates it. She hates how helpless it made her feel, and the long term side effects are just a horrible reminder what happened.

“Hey,” the voice comes from her doorway. Kaliyo's, of course. Kaliyo's been the only one acting as if things are normal.

She stands up and turns around to see the 1.5 meter Tattataki leaning against her door frame, as unperturbed as ever.

“Kaliyo,” says Cipher, lifting up her shirt to wipe the sweat off her face. “Something wrong?”

Kaliyo rolls her eyes. “Yeah, but you wouldn't wanna talk about it.” She sniffs the air. “Whats the deal in here, anyway? It smells like funk and angst. You need one of those after-school-special interventions, but for not acting like a fucking teenager instead of drugs.”

Cipher pauses, almost certain she's just been insulted, but unsure how to react.

She adjusts her body language to appear casual – it's a conscious decision, as it's never come easy to her. Instead of letting her weight be distributed evenly, she leans it slightly to the right. Drops her left hand down, sticks the right hand in her pocket, and lets her head cock slightly to one side. “Like you'd ever hold an intervention Kaliyo,” she says, trying to keep her voice light and jestful.

“No? Consider this it,” Kaliyo says, gesturing out at the hallway. “Get outta your room; we're sparring.”

Cipher raises an eyebrow – Kaliyo's never shown any indication of wanting to practice before – but follows her out. Might as well see where this goes. And hopefully a fight – even a stimulated fight – will give her adrenaline somewhere to go, instead of pumping around her body uselessly, convinced there's danger at every corner.

Cipher takes off her shoes and makes Kaliyo take off her boots – which elicits some eye rolling from Kaliyo, of course – so that no one hurts each other too badly. Kaliyo gestures at her face and says “What about those?”

Cipher touches her cybernetic eyes self consciously.

“Ah, so I can't have boots but you still rely on your tech?” Her voice doesn't sound like she thinks it's unfair, but Cipher can never tell with Kaliyo.

“I need my tech to see, Kaliyo,” she says. “Unless the rules involve us both removing our visual apparatus.” 

Kaliyo smiles. “Touche.” And they start fighting.

Kaliyo is a wonder to spar – Cipher had never known how she'd fight without her blaster rifle, so everything is new. She's much stronger than Cipher would've anticipated, and faster than a vaapad. Even without formal training, she's a formidable opponent. It's all Cipher can do to block, dodge, and stay on her feet, and it feels great. She's held back every time she's sparred Temple – after all, Temple is still in training. This feels real. Two warriors training for the battlefield.

Kaliyo isn't exactly familiar with the concept of pulling her punches, Cipher can tell. Occasionally, she gets cracked with something that was obviously unrestrained, and Kaliyo apologizes. It goes like “Sorry –” and then when she's realized she doesn't normally apologize, “Wait, why am I apologizing? You're a secret agent. Walk it off.”

Cipher gets exhausted first, of course. She just spent the past thirty minutes working out, and the IX serum had already done a number on her body. As she and Kaliyo are sparring, she just feels herself start slipping to the floor.

Kaliyo catches her arms. It surprises Cipher – gestures of concern don't come naturally to her friend. And now, with Cipher bent over, her head height is almost exactly at Kaliyo's. Their breath intermingles as each is breathing hard from the sparring, Kaliyo's eyes meeting hers in a way that's strangely non-bothersome. And then, before she knows what she's doing, Cipher leans forward and lightly pecks her friend on the mouth.

Time stops. She wants to yank it back, not because she regrets it but because it could change the rules. She hates it when someone changes the rules on her. What if Kaliyo hates it?

“Sorry,” she says slowly.

Kaliyo grins wickedly and moves one of her hands from her arm to her face. “Don't you pull that shit, agent,” she says, as she pulls her in closer to her body. One of her hands clasps Cipher's hair, and she pulls her in for a deep kiss.

Cipher returns her affections threefold. She kisses her multiple times, just overwhelmed from everything. Kaliyo gently lowers her to the floor, since she was tired and going there anyway, and climbs on top of her.

Cipher feels herself laugh. She just lets it out. She doesn't know why. Everything has been so tense and restrained lately – except murder – and it feels so good to have emotions that are related to something positive. Kaliyo laughs in response, says, “You're such a dork, agent,” and keeps kissing her.

Cipher relaxes a little, feels Kaliyo's hands exploring her body, slipping under her shirt and bra and squeezing a breast. She realizes it's a little rude to just lay on her back and not return the favor, so she reaches up to touch Kaliyo's rock hard abs. They're really nice to the touch. A good sensation.

After a couple minutes of rough housing,, Kaliyo sits up suddenly, leaving Cipher disappointed and turned on. She props herself up on one elbow and looks at her friend.

“Why'd we stop?”

Kaliyo smiles. “If you wanna go any further, Agent, we should move out of the cargo bay and into my quarters. Unless you're expecting everyone else to appreciate a free show.” 

Cipher blushes so hard her entire face feels warm and nods. Kaliyo helps her up off the floor – Cipher is still tired – and as they walk through the ship, Cipher can't even contain her smile. Kaliyo taps the “door open” button for her room and drags Cipher in. 

Cipher's still wavery on her feet, so she sits down hard on the bed. Kaliyo locks the door behind her and shrugs off her trench coat. She grabs her shirt and yanks it over her head, and undoes her bra in one smooth movement.

Cipher is much clumsier, but she manages to get her top off, too. Kaliyo practically tackles her on the bed, shoving her into a passionate kiss. “Gotta say,” she laughs between kisses, “I didn't see this coming.”

“I did,” Cipher says with a smile. “I mean, how was I supposed to interpret 'wonder how long I could ride you before you break'?”

Kaliyo lets out a deep and throaty laugh, and Cipher leans up to kiss her neck, to lean into it and feel it. “Yeah, yeah”, Kaliyo says. “I get it.”

Kaliyo tugs off Cipher's pants slowly, kissing her stomach, and later, her vulva, all the while. Cipher feels her breath speed up in her chest. It's light and airy, like she's up high on a mountain where the atmosphere is thinner.

Kaliyo pushes her legs further apart and starts to lean in between them, but then looks up at Cipher's face.

“So, are you good for this?” she asks. 

Cipher nods breathlessly. Then, Kaliyo starts kissing her cunt. She's never felt anything like it before – all the people she's slept with so far have been for work, and you don't normally ask someone you want information out of to go down on you. Kaliyo checks in once more before inserting two finger into her vagina, and starts pulling them forwards, and Cipher can just feel herself tensing. After a couple minutes, a couple really long minutes, she feels herself come. She's not sure what she shouts – hasn't really done this in a while – but when Kaliyo looks up at her, she's smiling.

Kaliyo stands up and stretches out, and then Cipher grabs her by the waist, thinking of the proper words to ask how to return the favor, but none are coming. That always happens when she feels really emotional, but right now it's really annoying. She gestures.

Kaliyo jumps on the bed and smiles. 

Cipher looks up her up and down, drinking in the sight of her mostly naked body. “So should I take my pants off, or not?” Kaliyo asks, and Cipher nods in reply, grateful she doesn't have to force out words.

It's difficult to go down on Kaliyo – Cipher hopes she doesn't notice – because she's never been with a woman before. Thinking of it as masturbating but on someone else doesn't really work, because the angle is all wrong. She can hear Kaliyo's breath speed up a couple times, so hopefully she's doing something right, but after a couple minutes, Kaliyo pushes her away. 

“God, for a sexy secret agent, you sure are terrible at that,” Kaliyo says. 

Cipher furrows her brow in concern and starts to object, but Kaliyo stops her. “Here,” she says, “I'll just show you what to do.” 

Cipher sits down in front of her, and Kaliyo reaches down between her own legs, stroking her vulva and rubbing her clit between her finger. After a little bit, and Cipher thinks she's got the drift, she asks “Let me try?” and Kaliyo does.

She nuzzles her head against her friends crotch and slowly sucks on her clit. It feels weird – a lot different than a blow job – but in a good way. She thinks she's doing well as Kaliyo says “fuck” and exhales with relaxation. 

Kaliyo flops back on the bed, with a languid smile on her face, and Cipher climbs up so she can see. Just her face – its so fucking beautiful.

She shoves Kaliyo to the side, so they can both use the pillow, and looks at her. She feels a lot better than earlier, but she doesn't think it was just the sex. It was – something. Some sort of positive connection after everything's gone down. Seeing another side to her friend. Who knows?

“So,” Kaliyo says, nuzzling her a little, “I hope you don't expect this to mean I'm your girlfriend.”

Cipher laughs, feeling her voice return to her finally. “I don't know what we are,” she says, “and I don't care. Things like this – they don't need a name.”


End file.
